<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>what will you do when i'm not here with you, and you sit here and you're not with me by supernxva23</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27411673">what will you do when i'm not here with you, and you sit here and you're not with me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernxva23/pseuds/supernxva23'>supernxva23</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Found Family, Future Fic?, Gen, JATP Week, You can't change my mind, canon ships are there but not the focus so i didnt tag, flynn and reggie bonding, i haven't slept in a week, julie has the power, julie molina does a lot for the ghost community, look i just love rivers and roads by the head and the heart okay, nick and alex bonding, post-possession nick, rebuliding frienships with julie and carrie, the friends/found family/tour/eventual crossing over fic that no one asked for, there's more than one caleb type ghost out there, this fic took up the last of my brain cells so please enjoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:29:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27411673</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/supernxva23/pseuds/supernxva23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>a family can be four living teens and four ghosts</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Julie Molina &amp; Luke Patterson &amp; Reggie &amp; Alex &amp; Willie &amp; Flynn &amp; Nick &amp; Carrie Wilson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>146</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>JATP Appreciation Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>what will you do when i'm not here with you, and you sit here and you're not with me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i need to sleep<br/></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> <b>2020</b></p><p> Julie Molina meets some ghosts. And as time passes, she finds they have a lot in common. Music connects them and they all need it just as much they need to breathe, or not breath. So, Julie takes in three ghosts. They create a band. They bond and find themselves playing music together as if they always have. Julie and the Phantoms work to gain exposure.</p><p> They play and write and play, and perform. Then, she almost loses her boys, her band, her family. But she holds onto them tightly. And by some unknown force of will and love, she gets to hold on to her boys for a while longer.</p><p>
  <b>2021</b>
</p><p> Julie and the Phantoms blow up. Her best friend and her brother take charge of their socials. The two use the ‘ghost’ thing to their advantage, using it to promote the band, and people love it. Julie tells her dad about her ghosts. The somehow save Nick, defeating Caleb once and for all. And so they adopt Nick into their little family.</p><p> After months of being under someone else’s control, he’s happy to have the people that saved him still around to save him again and again. They care, and they don’t judge whenever he jumps at the slightest of sounds. Carrie comes around, admitting that she’s happy for Julie and her band. She wishes them luck and asks if Julie wants to hang out sometime, because she missed her friend. Julie takes her up on the offer.</p><p> She and Carrie rebuild the friendship they’d lost. At the end of the year, Julie tells her about her ghosts. Flynn, their self-appointed manager, finds second-hand recording equipment over some months, and they record an album themselves. Flynn and Nick teaching themselves through youtube tutorials to learn how to use everything properly.</p><p>
  <b>2022</b>
</p><p> Her dad only ever asks that she finishes high school before even thinking of touring. So, she does. That summer, they accept an offer to open for a new rising band. Bringing along Flynn, Nick and Carrie. Flynn acting as their roadie/techie, and Nick and Carrie to run the merch table.</p><p> They rent a van big enough for the seven of them and Julie’s keyboard. They bring along a guitar, too, Julie learning to play from Luke, and Nick has it when she’s not practicing. Sometimes he just needs to keep his hands busy so they don’t shake.</p><p> One night, surrounded by their little family who already knew, Nick tells Carrie about his possession. They cry and hug, any shred of ill will left between them turns to dust. Julie finds that the more her lifers are around her, they can see the band without the aid of music. She’s still not sure how or why, but in the end, it doesn’t seem to matter.</p><p> They bond, Alex and Nick find they have a lot in common, both second-guessers and anxiety ridden teens. Alex tells Nick that he can channel all his looming thoughts into something, to create order from the chaos. Nick turns out to be a natural. He can keep a beat and he’s the only one Alex lets behind his drum set.</p><p> Luke teaches Julie how to play the guitar in their downtime. He’s patient with her, as he’s always been and will be. They write more and more, never seeming to stop, almost like they’re running out of time, unaware that they actually are.</p><p> Flynn, when she’s not busy being the one who keeps everything running, finds that she has an admiration for the bass. Reggie, excited to share something with her, teaches her what he knows. Needless to say, jam sessions led by them tend to get a little chaotic.</p><p> Willie pops in when he can, busy with running the HGC. No longer a ghost fly trap, but a safe haven. Taking in the newly deceased or newly out of the dark room ghosts, or even just lost ones. Offering them a space to be until they find their unfinished business, somewhere to go, or to stay as long as they’d like. He’s what Caleb should’ve been. A guiding hand. A support system for lost souls. And he’s happy. Coming to shows when he can, seeing Alex. Happy for the time they didn’t think they’d ever get.</p><p>Another night, the boys decide to tell Carrie the truth about her dad. The songs he stole, his real name, everything. She cries. For the boys that died eating hotdogs. For the boy her dad used to be and what he must’ve gone through, losing his bandmates. For the families of the phantoms. For the pain of these boys, having their music taken from them, passed off as her father’s own. She cries till her tears run out.</p><p> Her friends, her family, surround her and tell her how they shouldn’t have kept it from her this long. She waves their apology away. She knows the truth now, that’s what matters. Carrie also joins Julie in her lessons. Not all of them, because third wheel much? And she wants them to spend the all the time that they have together.</p><p> She only joins to keep her guitar playing fresh, having been taught by her dad when she was young. It’s been a while since she’s touched a guitar, but she finds comfort when she plays again. They tour, they bond, they live.</p><p> Before they ventured on tour, they made a travel playlist. A collectively made, mash-up of all types of songs. Everyone getting to choose their own handful of music to put onto it.</p><p> Long drives and heavy nights spent tapping fingers on knees or feet following the beat. Soft hums or screaming along to a certain song they all knew. The lifers yell along to songs from their childhood, singing along with their ghosts when an 80’s song plays.</p><p> Luke, Reggie and Alex listening intently when a post ‘95 song runs through the speakers. Vibing and eventually catching onto lyrics as the playlist restarts and replays over and over. All of them singing along to ‘There She Goes’.</p><p> The band plays and they connect. Willie sometimes takes some of his ghosts to their shows. Usually relative newbies. He believes that it might take their minds off the whole being dead thing, at least, for a little while. The band switches up their set-lists regularly, trying out new stuff here and there to see how the crowd reacts.</p><p> The last song tonight is ‘Bright’. As the song hits it’s peak, Willie spots a young girl a few feet ahead of him. She looks around and catches his eye. She sees him, he sees her, another ghost, tears running down her face. She turns her gaze to her arm, a tattoo, not unlike Caleb’s sits in her wrist. Suddenly, the ghost girl’s arm lights up, the mark rising off her skin.</p><p> Watching in awe, the mark obliterates in the air and she laughs, looking back at Willie. He’s crying too, heart melting for this ghost. She turns to the stage, the band still playing, but their eyes are locked on her. They saw the whole thing.</p><p> Their set ends and they bow, faces still in shock from what happened. Willis pops in back stage looking for the band. He finds them and they all open their mouths to confirm with each other what in the hell just happened, faces burrowed in confusion when the girl appears in front of Julie and the guys. She tells them only what she felt. She says an old ghost marked her decades ago and whatever they did on stage had rid her of it.</p><p> She doesn’t know how, but she knows for sure, in her un-beating heart, that it was their doing. Thanking them, she goes away, a free soul once again. Everyone is still stunned but takes it in stride. And when they start to notice more marks rise in the crowds and tears on faces, they know that word had gotten around.</p><p> Ghosts come to see the lifer-led ghost band. Freed ghosts give thanks and in turn, they tell the free ghosts about Willie’s home for ghosts, and that they’re welcome there anytime they need. The initial shock turns into warmed hearts and joyous smiles. The music reaches further than they ever could’ve wished for. They’re happy.</p><p> The first half of the tour ends, and they have a few weeks of break and they go home. The newer additions of the group being claimed as honorary Molinas by Ray. The break ends and so everyone gets back into the van, and they go.</p><p> During the second leg of the tour, they make a point to hit up thrift stores in every town they play. At one store, Flynn finds an old polaroid camera. It comes with some film, so she buys it, hoping it isn’t broken. It isn’t.</p><p> At another store, Carrie finds an old, but clearly loved acoustic guitar that she buys. Sharing one guitar between three people can get a little hard, so one more would help. She shares custody of it with Nick, leaving the first guitar solely for Julie to use as she keeps learning.</p><p> Throughout every thrift stop, Reggie amasses an ungodly amount of second-hand flannels. Everyone picks out a flannel for him, gifting them as they return to the van. The mountain of flannels end up being shared amongst the group. At various points, they realize that they’re all donning a flannel as they rest in comfortable silence.</p><p> Nick is surprised when he comes back to the van to find  a new fedora resting on his seat. He eyes his friends, as they try to hide the smiles on their faces, no one speaking a word as he picks it up and theatrically puts it on his head. Wolf whistles start as he ducks his head, telling them, very convincingly, to stop as he blushes.</p><p> Julie finds an unopened set of mini notebooks. They are space themed, every cover has a beautiful art piece of a planet along with some stars. Of course, she buys them and once everyone is back in the van, she tells her friends to pick one for themselves.</p><p> Everyone writes in their notebooks often. Some use it as a tour diary, a poetry book, a songbook, a book to doodle in, and in some cases, it’s used all four ways. Her friends thank her and they make a point to buy a ton of pens and pencils at the next stop.</p><p> The colorful assortment of pens sit in the makeshift pen holder, a thermos Flynn picked up because it just screamed Julie to her. Words on the front of it read, ‘You Shine!!’ which Flynn thought was perfect for her friend. The thermos sits in a cup holder, easy for most everyone to reach.</p><p> On a whim, they decide to stay at a campsite for the night. Finding a perfectly secluded fire pit, they gather around it. The night is spent with songs around the campfire and stories of nostalgic memories of anything and everything from everyone.</p><p> Flynn recounts once upon a time when she, Julie and Carrie were the terrific trio. She tells them of how happy she is to be here, in this moment, with friends she could never replace. Carrie and Nick pass their guitar back and forth.</p><p> The music fades along with the night, the friends, no, family, dragging their tired bodies into the van. When they wake up the next morning feeling a little more melancholic, not one of them voices it. No one says a word. The rest of the tour goes off without a hitch and they’re happy.</p><p> Julie staying around after shows longer than she should to meet as many people as she can. She loves hearing their stories and passions, encouraged by her passion. Flynn crafted a box they bring along to every venue for fans to leave notes and letter for the band. Spare time on their drives being spent reading through them all. And then, the tour ends.</p><p> The success they’ve found in such little time was unimaginable. Coming down from the tour high, the group still orbits around each other. The studio is their home, their safe space. And as the year comes to an end, the boys feel it.</p><p> A small tug at their chests. It’s not like the shocks they got from Caleb, not painful, just a reminder. A pull, telling them to be ready. They gather their friends and tell them the words they hoped they wouldn’t ever have to. Julie cries, they all do. They know they’re going soon but still not when.</p><p> Days before the inevitable, the group will take up their instruments and play a song. Carrie had showed it to Reggie, thinking he’d like it. And he did. So much in fact, that he’d absentmindedly hum it around causing anyone around him to ask about it. He told them and eventually everyone knew the song by heart.</p><p> So as Carrie started playing her guitar, Reggie starts singing. For a single song, they put aside the worry and pain they have yet to feel and play together.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//A year from now we'll all be gone                                                                                                   
    All our friends will move away                                                                                                               
    And they're goin' to better places                                                                                                            
    But our friends will be gone away//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> Then Julie,</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>//Nothin' is as it has been                                                                                                                        
 And I miss your face like hell                                                                                                                      
 And I guess it's just as well                                                                                                                        
 But I miss your face like hell//</em>
  </b>
</p><p>Joined by Flynn, Nick and Carrie as they take on the ‘Ahhs’ The lifers sing to their ghosts, a goodbye, just in case.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>//Been talkin' 'bout the way things change                                                                                   
  And my family lives in a different state                                                                                                       
  If you don't know what to make of this                                                                                                   
  Then we will not relate//</em>
  </b>
</p><p> The rest of the boys join in, easily settling into harmonies laced with heartache. Music surrounds them all like a warm embrace. Teary eyes and loving smiles on each of their faces like it's the worst and best moment to be in. Finishing out the song, they all hug for what feels like hours.</p><p> A few days later, they’re all sitting around around, still making their way through fan letters. Reading about changed lives, love and admiration. Air in the room shifts, the three boys freeze and look at each other. They stand and the rest of them just know. It’s time.</p><p> Goodbye’s aren’t spoken as much as they’re felt. The lifers want to thank them, but how do you even begin to thank someone for saving you? What words could ever be right enough to say? And the ghosts would tell them the same. Getting a second chance to be who they always wanted to be. To connect to people through music, they get to leave a mark. Time will not erase them.</p><p> Alex holds onto Willie, treasuring the few moments they have. Julie and Luke rest foreheads on each other’s shoulders, whispering words only they will know. Everyone cries, laughs and sadly smiles. They’ve known it was coming, but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt. Luke, Reggie, and Alex take one last look at what the afterlife had brought them. And then, they’re gone.</p><p> The ones left stay rooted in place. Reality setting in. No one goes anywhere for the night and the next day. Willie has to go and check in on the club. Over the next few weeks, the four lifers stay close, each one of them having their own respective breakdowns. But the rest of them are always there for one another.</p><p> When one falls, the others pick them back up and set them on their feet. After two months of silence, Julie takes a seat at her piano and plays. Nick walks over to the drums and joins her. Then Flynn makes her way over to the bass. The last is Carrie, grasping the guitar, seeing the rabbits foot hanging off the strap.</p><p> They play, following Julie’s lead, playing their hearts out. It turns into a darker sounding version of “Stand Tall’. It’s different, more pained, more matured. They play their hurt out, knowing this time, no one’s popping up to join them, and melt into acceptance one by one. It ends, and they all lock eyes, knowing what they’re doing next.</p><p>The absence of Julie and the Phantoms saddens the fans. Asking questions they’ll never get the answers to. The only thing they get is Julie starting a new band with her friends. They work from the ground up.</p><p> Some old fans migrate over, supporting their favorite front-man, Julie, but their sound is different and some old fans aren’t into it, but that’s okay. So they write, and play small gigs, and write and get bigger gigs. Five years into building this new chapter, they lose one more.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>2027</b>
</p><p> During rehearsals for their next show, Willie pops in, a saddened smile on his face. They know, of course they know. He tells them he’s put trusted ghosts in charge at the club in preparation for this moment, but he asks if Julie would still check in once in a while.</p><p> He told his chosen leaders that they could come to her if they need to, and he hope that was still okay with her. She tells him yes, she’ll always be the ghost whisperer. Julie hugs him one last time, and tells him to give the guys a hug from her.</p><p> He nods, and says his goodbyes to the rest of his family. He’s scared, but still happy. He can feel it in his ghostly gut. He’s going to see Alex again. The lifers watch as Willie fades.</p><p>An air of warmth washes over them. It still hurts, but they’re happy for him. As so, they play on. Over the next five years they record an album and they tour. On and off, releasing a second album full of acceptances and gratitude for their uprisings. They have the music and the will, so they go on.</p><p> Julie didn’t think much about it because it’s been years now since it last happened, but during their set in New York, she sees a mark rise into the air. Though she’s lost so much, she hasn’t lost the power to free others.</p><p> They play as much as they can, hoping the word gets around like before. Wanting trapped souls to be free, wanting to give what they get. The band plays and grows, amassing fans from all over. They rise, as do their hearts.</p><p>
  <b>2032</b>
</p><p> Ten years since they let their ghosts go. Five since the last ghost went. Julie suggests at their last show of the current tour, that they should do an encore, for them. So they do. Julie walks up to the microphone and she tells the crowd a story.</p><p> A story of ghosts that came into her life and changed it forever. She’s eternally grateful and dedicates this song to those who’ve loved, lost or haven’t yet been found. Flynn begins the song and the crowd is silent.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//A year from now we'll all be gone                                                                                                   
 All our friends will move away                                                                                                                   
 And they're goin' to better places                                                                                                               
 But our friends will be gone away//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> Julie sings, her voice full of memories choking her up a bit.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//Nothin' is as it has been                                                                                                               
 And I miss your face like hell//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> Nick takes over, seeing her struggle.</p><p>
  <em><b>//And I guess it's just as well//      </b>                                                             </em>
</p><p>And joined by Flynn,</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//But I miss your face like hell//</b>
  </em>
  <em><br/>
</em>
</p><p>Julie doesn’t know what she’d do without these people, her friends, her family. She swallows and lets the ache out.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//Been talkin' 'bout the way things change//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> Julie sees Flynn out the corner of her eye, and she could swear she sees a flash of a red and black flannel next to her. She looks there fully, but it’s only Flynn.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//And my family lives in a different state//</b>
  </em>
  <em><br/>
</em>
</p><p> Her eyes catch a figure in pink, along with a long-haired figure behind the drums. Eyes focus and i’s only Nick there. Carrie takes he next line,</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//If you don't know what to make of this                                                                                       
  Then we will not relate//</b>
  </em>
  <em><br/>
</em>
</p><p> Julie sees a glimpse of what has to be Luke standing next to where Carrie is, but again, It’s just Carrie there.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>//Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers 'til I reach you//</em>
  </b>
  <em><br/>
</em>
</p><p>Julie takes over again, shaking the flashes of ghosts away. It’s in her head, a least that’s what she thought. Along with her family, she continues the song.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>//Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers 'til I reach you//</em>
  </b>
</p><p> She looks into the crowd and spots them. Luke. Reggie, Alex and Willie, grouped together near the back. The boys smile and nod to their star. Julie smiles back, overjoyed to know they’re okay. The repeated line of the song builds and builds as they get louder, more passionate as they feel it through their bones.</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>//Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers 'til I reach you                                                                                                                               
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                   
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                             
 Rivers 'til I reach you                                                                                                                              
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                    
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                    
 Rivers 'til I reach you//</em>
  </b>
</p><p> And as they sing the second to last ‘Rivers and roads’, Julie sees her. In the balcony smiling down at her, is the spitting image of her mom. Julie meets her eyes as they sing.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers and roads<br/>
Rivers 'til I reach you                                                                                                                               
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                    
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                               
 Rivers 'til I reach you                                                                                                                              
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                    
 Rivers and roads                                                                                                                                    
 Rivers 'til I reach you//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> With tears in her eyes, Julie can’t help but smile as they end the song.</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>//Rivers and roads<br/></b>








Rivers and roads<br/>
<br/>
</em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <b>Rivers 'til I reach you//</b>
  </em>
</p><p> A moment of silence is broken as the crowd goes off, the noise almost deafening. Julie looks back into the crowd, seeing only a small flash of her boys as they go. Looking back up to the balcony, her mom is still there.</p><p> Julie tries to say everything she ever wanted to with only one look. Her mom sees and rests a hand over her heart. She knows. Blowing Julie a kiss, she’s gone in a blink and Julie finds the place she stood is now vacant.</p><p> The band groups up and bows, and Julie holds on tight to the people she loves. Backstage, Julie takes Flynn’s hand, Flynn takes Carrie’s and Carrie takes Nick’s. He takes Julie’s other hand and the post-show band circle starts. They send their love to their ghosts, knowing that they’ll be heard.</p><p> And every time, without fail, a wave of cold washes over them. It’s not so much a shivering cold, but a comforting coolness. Words and well wishes are given freely. Knowing that they’re out there, somewhere, eases the lifers minds. And so, as they have done so many times before, they go on.</p><p> Even if Julie had the power, she’d never change anything about her life. She is still here, still playing music with the people that mean the most to her. She’s here with her family. She gets to connect with new people every day.</p><p> And a year later, as she drives in a van with Flynn riding shotgun, and Carrie and Nick in the seats behind them, she puts on their 2022 playlist. And when it starts playing, they all grin and softly sing along with a warmth in their chests.</p><p> She’s lost, but she’s also gained so much. The music lives on in her and her friends. The family she’s found, alongside her father and her brother keep her going each day. She’s grateful for the support of her dad, for the ghosts who wormed their way into her life and were gone just as fast, and for the friends she can hold in the rare times the ache in her chest gets to be too much.</p><p> And still through the hard times, new melodies and lyrics always seem to find a way into her head. And Julie wouldn’t change any part of her life, not a single one.</p><p> She’s happy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>"Sometimes we overcome, you know, just by going on."</p><p>thank you for reading.<br/>this fic took so much out of me but i love it all the same.</p><p>also, the tour playlist if anyone wants it:<br/>https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ZuagUBx1SHqqQxNkhMGGZ</p><p> </p><p>fic title: Another Room In Your Head from Alice By Heart<br/>title might change who knows<br/>not beta'd, probably mistakes everywhere<br/>let me know what you think<br/>all my love,<br/>as always</p><p>rose/nova</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>